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The gap between individual consumption in Germany and those euro-zone countries pursuing austerity programs continued to widen last year, according to figures from the European Union's official statistics agency.

The gap between individual consumption in Germany and those euro-zone countries pursuing austerity programs continued to widen last year, according to figures from the European Union's official statistics agency.

Contractionary fiscal policy in recessions is contractionary (contrary to those who advocate "expansionary austerity). It also worsens social indicators (though for some undermining the social safety net is one of the goals of austerity):

By Joe Firestone, Ph.D., Managing Director, CEO of the Knowledge Management Consortium International (KMCI), and Director of KMCI’s CKIM Certificate program. He has taught political science as the graduate and undergraduate level and blogs regularly at Corrente, Firedoglake and Daily Kos as letsgetitdone.

Echoing sentiment that should be widely-held but unfortunately is not German central bank president Jens Weidmann says Not ECB's Job to Tackle Spain's Problems.
Spain should take a rise in its bond yields as a spur to tackle the root causes of its debt woes, not look to the European Central Bank to help by buying its bonds, European Central Bank policymaker Jens Weidmann told Reuters.